Johnny Crowder sees Ava at the hardware store and begins making veiled threats regarding what her ex father in law Bo Crowder might do to her when he gets out of prison.

That night, Raylan’s staying the night at Ava’s house when a masked gunman breaks into the house and takes shots at them with a shotgun. Raylan struggles with the gunman, and as he flees, Raylan shoots at him and connects at least once.

Upon investigating the shooting, Harlan County Sheriff Hunter’s first idea is to question Johnny Crowder, given his earlier threats against Ava. Raylan doesn’t think it’s Johnny, but tags along with Hunter to Johnny’s bar to check him out. On the way, Hunter explains his history with the Crowder family to Raylan. Years ago, a Crowder cousin named Henry raped and murdered Hunter’s ten-year-old niece. Although Hunter was never able to track Henry down, he did begin riding the Crowders harder than he had in the past.

At Johnny’s bar, Hunter and Raylan check Johnny for wounds, assuming Raylan hit Ava’s attacker at least once. They don’t find any wounds on Johnny, and he denies any involvement.

The next day, a mysterious hit man named Duke appears to be watching Ava and Raylan. After watching them for a short while, Duke shows up at a remote cabin and converses with a gunshot young man named Red. Red is of course Ava and Raylan’s actual attacker. Duke dresses down Red, insinuating he wasn’t supposed to attack Ava and Raylan at all.

After arriving back in Lexington, Art has Rachel take Ava to a safe part of the courthouse, then tears into Raylan for being found in the bedroom of the only witness in Raylan’s shooting of Boyd. Does Raylan really think there will be no consequences to this?

In the meantime, Ava meets Winona officially for the first time. Winona sees her there in the courthouse, sits with her and bring up how difficult it is to be involved with a law enforcement officer. Ava plays coy, as if she has no idea why she would care about such a thing. Sheriff Hunter then appears unexpectedly, tells Ava that Raylan called him and suggested she go with him.

Raylan, meanwhile, is at Big Sandy prison chatting with Boyd. At first Boyd won’t do anything but quote the Bible to Raylan, driving Raylan to attack him right there in the prison. The guards have to restrain him. After he’s calmed down, Raylan tries to talk to Boyd once again. This time, Boyd is more cooperative. He tells Raylan that neither he nor his father Bo had anything to do with a hit on Ava. But Boyd does have an idea. What if the hit wasn’t on Ava at all, but on Raylan?

Hunter, meanwhile, shows up at the cabin Duke and Red are at. It turns out Boyd was absolutely right, the hit was on Raylan, and Hunter is in on it. He’s working for the Miami cartel along with Duke and Red, and the Miami cartel still wants revenge on Raylan for killing Tommy Bucks. After a minute of discussion, Hunter unexpectedly kills Duke. Hunter’s afraid Duke, being an actual contract killer sent by the cartel, might kill Red and himself after the hit on Raylan is done. Hunter then informs Red he’s got “something Raylan cares about” outside in the van. Of course he’s referring to the kidnapped Ava.

Using information garnered from Boyd, Raylan now knows what Hunter is up to, but when he gets Hunter on the phone, Hunter tells him he’s got Ava, and Ava will die if Raylan doesn’t show up at an appointed time and place.

When Raylan shows up at the meeting place, Hunter forces him into his squad car and the two of them follow the van driven by Red and carrying the bound Ava. Hunter figures even if there’s only a one in a million chance he gets away, it’s still worth a shot. During the drive, Raylan guesses correctly how the Miami cartel got their hooks in Hunter. They located and delivered Henry Crowder to Hunter, let Hunter kill him. Only when Hunter didn’t have quite enough cash to pay them, they offered an alternative – he could make sure their drugs got in and out of Harlan County without any trouble.

Inside the van, Ava loosens her bonds enough to attack Red, sending the van swerving all over the road and eventually off it and into a tree. Raylan uses this distraction to get the better of Hunter as well. Ava and Raylan are unharmed, and though Red and Hunter are both injured, they’ll live.

Meanwhile, at Big Sandy State Prison, some of Boyd’s fellow prisoners haven’t taken kindly to seeing him talk it up with Raylan so often. They label him a snitch, start to beat him down, but Boyd’s father Bo still holds some sway here, and he shows up in the nick of time and saves Boyd. Bo’s getting out soon, though. What becomes of Boyd after that?

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